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A culinary gypsy's search for new ingredients & classic techniques

Monthly Archives: June 2014

Will That be Tea or Coffee

Start Your Engines

Start Your Engines

For the price of used BMW, you too could crank this baby every morning.  One of the benefits of  going to Paul Bocuse is access to coffee, really good coffee. Three times a day I head to the long line of  recovering coffee drinkers and place my order. People are creatures of habit. Every morning I have a double espresso with a shot of hot milk, which according the baristas, makes me one evolutionary step from Neanderthal man during the period eating dirt. Never milk in an espresso if you have any form of respect for yourself. My self loathing goes away by mid morning when I order either an espresso or a cappuccino , which are acceptable mid morning choices. Score one for the cave man. Then another cappuccino after lunch because……….. There’s no good reason. Let’s call it recreational. Please no judgements as the average Canadian spends  about $27,000 at Tim Hortons in a lifetime.

 

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Buffet Week at Paul Bocuse

So Good No Need for Butter, Perhaps a Side of Cheese

So Good No Need for Butter, Perhaps a Side of Cheese

I have occasionally in a fit a desperation, low blood sugar or just plain gluttony, bellied up to a 100 + item buffet. Some places actually do it quite well. Like Las Vegas. Where else in the world can you get scrambled eggs with Alaska King Crab followed by a chocolate cheese cake followed up by a Zantac.

Haven’t seen any flashing neon signs enticing you to eat your face off for $19.95 including free refills on soft drinks. I don’t want to ask, however, I believe Le Buffet is for Les Animals. So let call this week ” Semaine de le Melanger”, which is kind of like a buffet only classy. On the melange this week, two days of bread, one day of coffee and tea, half a day of wine, one day of cheese and partridge in a pear tree. The partridge turned out to be duck topped with Unami and there was pear picked from a tree poached in wine. All of this from Troisgros, which does warrant a post all by itself. So back to the bakery.

Bakers get up early or they never go to bed. Our bakery chef has been a baker for 40 years and can bake close to 500 different types of bread. His hobbies include working part time as a clown, keeping the family farm going, drinking beer, and smiling when you push all the butter out of your croissant dough. This combination of facts has lead me to believe my initial statement that these guys never sleep.

As part of our studies we had be ready to roll and I mean roll in the bakery at 7 am. While lots of people in the class complained about the early hour, real bakers or their apprentices get up a lot early. I have learned because just outside my window is window to the back end of the bakery. I really hope that the apprentice who dropped the pans at 3:30am either learns or gets fired because it’s starting to get hot and I need to keep my bedroom window open.

Here’s some of our “not ready for prime time” baking.

 

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Ciabatta & Sandwich Bread

Consistent Size Comes with Experience

Consistent Size Comes with Experience

When you mess up the consistency of loafs, you can cut it and serve it. Nobody knows. If it has really mutated, croutons are always good. All else fails, fatten another pig with it.

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That’s not Burned, it’s Caramelized

 

What I like most about bakery is that you can take a gob of dough have some fun playing with it, add a few things and then mark it up 700% and put a smile on everybody’s face.

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Experimenting with Farm to Table

My Farm

My Farm

So many “hot” things right now in the food business. Farm to Table, Locally Sourced, 100 Mile Diet. During my weekend of deep contemplation and sugar rehab, I decided to combine all of these concepts to the best of my “I don’t want to do anything really” ability.

I recently made a farm on the top shelf of my dorm room. You will notice the basil on the right is different from the rest of the plants. It has a brown pot. I used to have a matching set of potted herbs, but sadly two weeks ago, my other basil either grew a little too much or committed herby/herby which is the same the ancient Japanese ritual of  harakiri. From the angle of the pot on the roof below me and 25 episodes of CSI experience. It looks like the basil saw the greener grass below and made a jump for it.  We were all shocked.

I have my farm and I have a table, which actually doubles as an ironing board. I eat at my desk most times. I’ve got farm to table covered. Now locally sourced 100 mile diet.

I have a kitchen here in my third story penthouse closet.

Two Burners with Timer

Two Burners with Timer

Those are Rotary Dials 800 watts of Pure Power

Those are Rotary Dials 800 watts of Pure Power

I'm Thinking of a New Cookware Line- Harry One Potter

I’m Thinking of a New Cookware Line- Harry One Potter

I wake Sunday morning thinking that eggs Benedict would be good. No room service here so it’s back to the basics. The 100 inch diet for two reasons everything is closed today and even if it was opened, I could be bothered to haul my butt out of my room.

Here’s how to make eggs Benedict when you don’t have most of the ingredients. Take couple of generous table spoons of real mayonnaise and add a baby finger nail amount of Dijon mustard, add one tickle of vinegar. Get a whisk. Melt about two tablespoons of butter in a cheap microwave using a coffee cup. Slowly whisk the melted butter into  the mayo mix. Now whip like a crazy person, who hasn’t had sugar since pastry week ended. Toast some day old bread in a frying pan with some lardons. If you don’t have any lardon (another form of French pork fat), fly to France go to the first store you see and there will lardon because it’s almost as popular as butter. Check your bread as you just want it lightly toasted. Boil water with a tinkle of vinegar in it. Put eggs in boiling water for 3 minutes max. Don’t worry the eggs will cook as you plate things. See plating instruction below.

Note: Check Photo Quality before Eating

Note: Check Photo Quality before Eating

Also note add fruit to take away guilt and add  cheese to make it exotic drink with big coffee.

Now that we’ve had breakfast what other activities for today. Yes eat lunch. Remember pastry week. As it turns out, people will do almost anything for pastries. Here’s the trade  with another class, who we’re trapped in meat week. Not bad for leftovers.

Veal with Stuff

Veal with Stuff

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3 Star Michelin Pastry… …… I ‘m Happy with 1/2 a Star in My Face

The Original Death by Chocolate

The Original Death by Chocolate

Remember your best whatever? Forget about whatever you are thinking about d feast one eyes on these pieces of gastronomic sweetness. I like sugar and the classic french pastry guy takes sugar in both its obvious forms and some chemically arranged forms and make your palate dance like a 14 year old at their first rave.

The end of pastry week was bitter sweet! Sorry about the cheap pun, but I can see how people get addicted to any substance. I’m not sure if it was strategic or if it’s just the way it is in Pastry Land, where every cloud is made or either meringue or chantilly creme, but you have a wait a day and then you can get all hepped up on sugar. Just as you smell something wonderful and blissful, chef says frigo (fridge in pastry chef code). And you wait and you wait until the next day. This approach allows you to build up such an expectation. You remember the old “visions of sugar plums danced in their heads”.  These poor kids only had sugar plums as opposed to us rich (in a creamy sort of way) kids, who, if we were eating something horrible like a plum, the plum would be nappaged  with magical sugar glaze on top of a finger cookie encrusted cake with cream based filling that’s illegal in certain countries because of the calories. I forgot it would be plated with a coulis made three different exotic fruit pumped up with more sugar tricks. Victorian era desserts no thank you. I think if Marie Antoinette had just given people bags of sugar, things would be different today.

We’ve been good little boys and girls, we’ve waited a day eaten our faces off, so now what. Too many desserts. What a horrible place to be! So we traded with another class for meat leftovers. Then chef says  “Poubelle” (trash can/ garbage) and years or programming kick in. You can’t throw away food you must clean the plate, even if it’s a three foot long industrial baking sheet. So I take them back to my apartment and have dessert night. Hey some people have game nights. I have dessert night. I also discovered after visiting the market in downtown Lyon, I ripped through about $40.00 worth of dessert on dessert night.

It's Healthy, It's Fruit

It’s Healthy, It’s Fruit

Forgot to mention the fresh made French Vanilla ice cream, caramel finish around the butter pastry and the pinapple that was curved as a result of the sugar hardened when it was placed in the oven.

Speaking of fruit, you can disguise it with enough other things that kids or immature adults will like it.

There's Fruit, Just About Everywhere

There’s Fruit, Just About Everywhere

Fancy Cotton Candy on Top

Fancy Cotton Candy on Top

Sometimes a light dessert is appropriate for people watching their caloric intake. I never mentioned a number. So here’s one for you. I think it’s called the praying nun. Puffy pastry filled with fresh raspberry jam and cream with a blond chocolate collar dipped in candy apple stuff. A quaint dessert that left move space to eat other desserts.

Heavenly Dessert

Heavenly Dessert

One last thing, if you feel guilty about any of these desserts, just add the additional garnish of pistachio nuts for fibre.

 

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